Nazr Mohammed

Nazr Mohammed is a retired professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association from 1998 to 2016. In 2005, he was part of the San Antonio Spurs who won the NBA Championship title that year.

Player Profile and Personal Life

Nazr Tahiru Mohammed was born on September 5, 1977, in Chicago, Illinois in the United States of America. He stands 208 cm tall and his weight was last listed at 113 kg.

He was raised in Chicago and is of Ghanaian descent. He is a practicing Muslim and he fasts during Ramadan. He is married and has two daughters and a son.

High School and College Career

Mohammed attended the Kenwood Academy and went on to attend the University of Kentucky.

He was considered overweight at 315 pounds and rarely saw any playing time in the NCAA championships. However, he grew thin in his sophomore year and along with Jamaal Magloire, became a major contributor in 1997 and helped the team to the runners-up spot in the championships.

In 1998, they succeeded in winning the NCAA championships, although unlike a couple of years ago, Mohammed was not warming the bench.

Professional Career

Mohammed decided to declare eligibility for the NBA Draft after his junior year and was selected by the [Utah Jazz]] at the 1998 NBA Draft.

He was picked 29th overall. The Jazz decided to trade him out to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for a first-round pick in the next season’s draft. After around 2 and a half years with the 76ers, Mohammed moved to the Atlanta Hawks and in the middle of 2004, shifted to the New York Knicks.

He was struggling for much game time and was mostly used as a backup by all his teams. In 2004-05, he spent just half the season with the Knicks and then went to the San Antonio Spurs and in a combined total of 77 games, had 9.5 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game.

The Spurs won the NBA Championships and on account of being a part of the starting lineup, Mohammed also got a well-deserved ring.

Mohammed had to deal with Rasho Nesterovic in his second year with the Spurs and only averaged 6.2 points with 5.2 rebounds in the regular season. Despite this, he was extremely instrumental in the team’s playoff games, helping them beat Sacramento with just his second 3-pointer, late in the game.

In July 2006, Mohammed decided to move to the Pistons to become their starting center but as soon as he entered the team, so did Chris Webber, and that was pretty much the end of Mohammed’s playing time at the Pistons. He got only 51 games of which 33 were starts but only played around 15 minutes per game. He averaged 5.6 points with 4.5 rebounds per game.

In 2007, Mohammed was traded out to the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for Primoz Brezec and Walter Herrmann. He had two outstanding performances where he scored 20 points with 14 rebounds and 2 assists against the Knicks and later, scored 22 points with 11 rebounds against the Los Angeles Lakers.

From 2011 to 2012, he played for the Oklahoma City Thunder then from 2012 to 2015, he played for the Chicago Bulls. Before retiring in 2016, he returned to playing for the Thunder.

Career Highlights

• 2005 - NBA champion
• 1996, 1998 - NCAA champion

Career NBA Statistics

• Points - 5,827 (5.8 ppg)
• Rebounds - 4,708 (4.7 rpg)
• Blocks - 639 (0.6 bpg)